My wonderful friends Brooke and Matt live just outside Bangkok, so as I was preparing for this trip I emailed Brooke for some tips and guidance. One of her many great recommendations was a weekly Muay Thai match that is broadcast live throughout Thailand. It sounded great because it’s definitely off the tourist track and we were excited to see what life outside the city was like.

Getting a ride to the stadium was a bit of a challenge, after 3 taxi fails and a disappointing Uber attempt we found success by agreeing to what we thought was a decent flat rate. (Maybe it was, there was a lot of traffic and it took 2x as long as the metered taxi Brooke & Matt got us for the ride home–which was half the price)

We arrived at Siam Boxing Stadium (aka Omnoi Stadium) an hour late but happy to be there. Bought a plastic ticket at the window (which you then give to the man at the door who then gives it right back to the woman at the window) and stepped inside. There are two main rooms, the first room is set with picnic tables full of bagged unidentifiable snacks for purchase and a second room only partially visible from the front entrance. From my initial vantage point, the second room held 300 locals (95% male) standing on bleacher-like steps yelling and waving their hands at something just out of view.

We walked passed the divide into the second room, and right there in front of us was the ring. Two of the fittest young men I’ve ever seen (like 10 sets of abs) were circling each other, bouncing and tapping their feet, mostly trying to fake each other out before landing a hit with a different body part than they started to strike with. The whole room smelled strongly of Tiger Balm. We watched in awe, trying to make sense of what was happening around us.

It was loud. On the other side of the ring, opposite the yelling wall of men there was a “rhythm section” featuring a couple of people on bongos/drums, a woman ringing finger cymbals, and a man playing some sort of kazoo. The rhythm section was cool because they got louder and increased their tempo as the time wore on. The timer on the wall was ancient, there was a 3, 2, and 1 that lit up at their respective minute marks, and a :30 when there was 30 seconds left. I’m guessing the fighters really rely (perhaps subconsciously) on the rhythm section, it seemed like the fight itself got more intense and scrappy as the tempo increased.

The yelling wall of men were all betting. It reminded me of the floor of the stock exchange. A lot of people had earbuds in and were yelling into their phones – I saw one guy that had 3 phones clipped to a clipboard and he was talking into all 3 of them at once. They were all waving their hands in the air and throwing up different numbers… and that’s about all I could make of it. The only way I could tell who was winning/losing money was by their facial expressions at the end of the match. To be honest, I think I watched the wall of men just as much as the fight itself.